Scars Never Fade
by SinWave
Summary: A ten-year-old girl is found beaten, abused, and left for dead on the side of the road. Grisha and his wife Carla Yeager take in the poor girl. Mikasa struggles with PTSD and has a hard time speaking about it to anyone. Eren does everything to support his deeply scared and ill sister. Modern AU, rated M for some graphic depictions of violence.


The door to the house burst open, something large and heavy flew over her head, she fell from her chair and hit the ground. There was a bang of a gunshot, a woman yelled, she could see dark figures moving around the room. A tangle of confused voices hammered her ears, there was another bang, and something fell to the ground.

Someone was standing over her, the only face she could make out. It was cruel, its eyes were like black holes leading into nothing, it was thin and sallow, almost like someone had poorly attached human skin to a skull. Its last remaining hair was stuck to its face, sweat rolled down from its forehead to its cracking lips and unshaven chin.

It wiped its nose on its sleeve and said something that the girl couldn't understand. She tried to scream but nothing came out, she could see light coming from her left, she rolled over and was sitting in a car.

Her hands and feet were tied up, something stung across her body. The same man was in the driver seat of the car. Sweat was still running down his face, his small eyes were darting back and forth between the mirrors and the road in front of him. A blue and red light was reflecting from the mirror into the girl's face. He yelled something; she couldn't hear the words, but she knew what to do. The door of the car sprung open and the man pushed her out.

She fell onto the cold asphalt, a tiny spike cut her cheek and she was sitting in a chair, the man was standing in front of her holding a bloody knife. She couldn't see. There was a crack, she tried to yell, her blood was burning inside her, she couldn't hear anything aside from the blood pouring from every orifice it could find, she was falling, someone was yelling. She was in the middle of the road, nails through her feet kept her from moving as a car came roaring toward her, her body was ice and it was about to shatter. The car hit her, and she woke in a cold sweat.

She was in a bed, three thick blankets kept her from the gentle breeze that was flowing in from the cracked window, the light of the full moon cast shadows onto the wooden floor. A wooden dresser sat by the foot of the bed in a corner of the room, a nightstand with a lamp on it was next to her head. Next to the head of her bed was a desk, on it a lamp, a cup full of pens, a few notebooks, an empty mug, and a computer. Next to the desk was a bookshelf reaching up to the ceiling of the room full of books.

She got up from the bed, her legs were shaking so badly she almost fell over. She looked down at her arms, even in the dead of night the moonlight was still bright enough for her to look down and see the scars and still open wounds covering every inch of her arms. The bandages lay on the floor. Her hands began to shake she tried to do what the nurse at the hospital had told her to do, she tried to steady her breathing, tears ran down her face, her entire body was shaking, the skeletal man was standing in the doorway, the light of the moon turned to blood red she tried to run she collapsed onto the floor the man was standing over her the bloody knife in his hand she bit her tongue to keep herself from yelling she couldn't breathe the man vanished she rolled over coughing up blood.

She pushed herself to her feet and stumbled to the desk to keep from falling over again, her breath was erratic, blood poured from her mouth. She stumbled out of the room; she could barely remember where the bathroom was. She tried to be as quiet as possible, what would they do if they woke up because of her?

She looked in the bathroom mirror, blood was running down her entire face, every bit of her skin she could see was covered in scars and still open wounds. Her hair was caked in dry blood, her skin was pale, her lips dry and bleeding, her stormy grey eyes looked empty and tired. Her arms were hardly thicker than her bones. Her cheek bones could be seen through the skin of her face, she was far too thin to be healthy.

She turned back to the bedroom and made her way back into bed. She lay down and pulled the blankets up over her and closed her eyes. The man's face was right in front of her, she tried to stop it, but the scream came from her mouth before she could do anything, her entire body was shaking and burning she couldn't breathe, something fell to the ground and shattered. The man was smiling, the same gleam of the knife is in his eyes. Someone was yelling, footsteps and the sound of hands banging on wood, she felt a sharp pain on the back of her head, and everything went black.

When she woke up the sun was shining into the window, there were new blankets on the bed, her face and hair was slightly wet, her arms were bandaged, her tongue stung. She slowly brought her hands up in front of her face, the bandages ran from her shoulders all the way to her fingers, parts of them were stained with blood. The lamp on the nightstand was gone, she tried to sit up, her chest was tight. There were more bandages up her entire chest and all the way down her legs. There was a quiet knock at the door,

She felt panic rising in her chest, she didn't know who it was, what were they going to do when they got in? They were going to hurt her, she knew it.

"Mikasa?" it was a man talking, the girl brought her legs up to her chest, "it's Grisha, I don't know how much you remember me, I just wanted to make sure you are doing okay."

The girl, Mikasa, took a deep breath and said, "I – okay I – I you can come in." The door opened and a man walked in. Mikasa drew her legs in even closer to her chest without even thinking about it. The man was in a black suite, his eyes were framed by round glasses, his light brown hair sat just above his shoulders.

"Are you doing all right? I don't know how much you remember but you had a rough night last night. Is there anything you need before I go off to work today?"

"I'm fine." Mikasa's voice was horse, quiet, and emotionless. Grisha nodded, "alright Mikasa, just let Carla know if you need anything, she'll be bringing up breakfast for you soon. Before I go, I wanted to introduce you to our son, Eren."

Mikasa looked down from Grisha's face to the boy standing next to him, he had a face similar to Grisha's, his hair was shorter, and he didn't have the glasses. His eyes were full of worry and fear. Mikasa nodded, Grisha glanced at his watch and said, "I need to be going, Eren, make sure you get some of your homework done, Mikasa, try to get some rest."

Grisha turned and walked from the room, Eren said, "if you need anything from me just let me know, my room is just on the other side of the hallway." Mikasa nodded, Eren turned and left. Mikasa winced at the pain in her chest and fell back onto the bed. There was a knock at the door, it must be Grisha's wife, bringing up breakfast like Grisha had said she would.


End file.
